Loveland softball blows past Legacy

Indians' early scoring troubles averted against Lightning

The softball matchup between Loveland and Legacy high schools on Thursday night was billed as a feature game in Class 5A around the state, with a perch atop the Front Range League the reward.

A 1-0 game would not have been a shock to anyone's system.

By the end it was really no contest, much to everyone's surprise. With Legacy having to play the game without its top pitcher, Haley Smith -- perhaps for the rest of the year -- the Indians crushed the Lightning, 14-4, at Centennial Field.

A lot of the air may have been taken out of the game by the fact that Smith (10-0, 1.65 ERA) suffered a knee injury that will keep her out of action for an unspecified amount of time. But Loveland's Cassidy Smith still had to get through the dangerous Legacy lineup, and she did so with just a small hiccup.

"Just because they didn't have their pitcher, they did have their normal nine hitters," coach Mike Felton said after the Indians improved to 8-0 in league play and 14-1 overall, which could vault them up the state rankings very soon. "Cassidy still shut them down except for one inning. That's what she did last year, too. What else can you say about her pitching?"

With just one strikeout in the five-inning mercy-rule shortened game, Smith got all kinds of help from her defense. Line drive catches from Annika Anderson at second base and Maria Preciado in right field provided some important outs at key times in the game, while a pair of pickoffs from Addie Coldiron in the fourth inning got the Indians out of their only jam.

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For Smith, she knew she still had to take care of business -- even though her team had spotted her an 8-0 lead at one point.

"I've done this a million times, it's just another pitch, just another batter," Smith said of her mindset of facing a tough lineup. "Didn't think about who (each batter) was, how many strikeouts or anything ... just did my best to make it a hard time for them to get on.

"I'm glad we were able to get ahead early rather than later."

That early lead was something the Indians haven't done a lot of. Against Legacy's Shania Leon, a junior, the hits were many and early, at that. Colissa Bakovich had three singles in the first three innings of play, Coldiron had two run-scoring doubles in the first two frames and five different batters had driven in runs, all before the third.

In all, the Indians laced 16 hits, walking off when Preciado drove a double down the right-field line to score Holly Posegate. From the top of the lineup all the way down, it was a special night.

"We just knocked off the No. 1 seed, which gives us so much more confidence, but we know it will take all of us to keep progressing," said Coldiron, who also got bulldozed at home on a play in the fourth frame but stayed in the game. "I'm really proud of Maria; she deserves this especially on senior night. It'll be a good memory for her.

"I'm happy with where we're all at right now."

In Felton's mind, there was no way a mercy-rule game would apply in this series. But he was quick to point out his team went for the jugular against a team that might have been down on itself.

"If they are going to play like that without their pitcher, then the only thing you can say is it's a one-girl team," Felton said. "The way we hit the ball, and our defense was good and we didn't really make mistakes. They scored four, but I really didn't think we'd 10-run them."

Legacy coach Dawn Gaffin agreed her team had to go back to the drawing board. While she said she felt Leon capable of leading the team to success, the Lightning made costly mistakes that didn't help the effort.

"We had some mistakes that I have never seen in my ballplayers before," Gaffin said. "Things to work on. We can't ride glory, we have to ride talent and skill, what we know. We have to go back and figure out what we're going to do... and we've got to hit the ball."